writer, editorial strategist, narrative journalist

Meg Houston Maker is a writer and editorial strategist with deep expertise in editorial design, content strategy, digital engagement, and creative communications for the conversational marketplace.

Through her company, Megmaker Communications, she helps educational institutions, businesses, nonprofits, and individuals connect with constituents and communicate their values directly and persuasively. An accomplished narrative journalist as well as visual designer, she manages teams to create compelling, multi-channel narratives that will connect people to ideas—and to each other.

Meg’s own freelance nonfiction writing focuses on culture and lifestyle topics, and she’s especially passionate about traditional foodways, the human connection to landscape, and the intersection of nature and culture. She travels extensively in Europe and the New World to conduct research and interviews, and her writing has earned mention by Eric Asimov of the New York Times, Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Beast, Maria Popova of Brain Pickings, Wine Business Monthly, Wine Industry Insight, The Browser, and many other publications. She has been a Wine Blog Awards finalist in Best Writing (2013) and Blog Post of the Year (2012) categories, and her publication, Maker’s Table, was honored as a Top Wine News Blog in the 2014 Millésima Awards.

Meg is a juried member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the national organization of independent nonfiction writers whose 1,300 members have met ASJA’s exacting standards of professional achievement. She is also a professional member of the French Wine Society, the Society of Wine Educators, and the Guild of Sommeliers. A Certified Specialist of Wine, she leads tastings and teaches classes about wine, wine pairing, and sensory evaluation.

She earned a bachelor’s degree Summa cum Laude in Visual Studies and a master’s degree in Liberal Studies/Creative Writing, both from Dartmouth College. Her graduate work focused on creative nonfiction and personal narrative, and her thesis, “Making It Home,” was a account of the effort to find, fix, remake, and remake again her home in rural New Hampshire. The manuscript received the 2011 Nicholas Byam Shaw Thesis Excellence Award for Creative Writing.

Find her essays about communications, social information, and writing here on megmaker.com. Find her essays about food, wine, and the pleasures of the table on makerstable.com. Find her full résumé and publications list on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter @megmaker.

The Serious Eats Guide to PortSerious Eats – November 2013Holiday foods are about spice and berries, nuts and chocolate, roasts and cheeses, caramel, ginger and jam. There’s one wine that pairs with all of it, and that wine is port.

Choosing Thanksgiving WinesMaker’s Table – November 2013 (revised and updated)No single wine pairs perfectly with Thanksgiving dinner. This article covers a range of wine styles beautifully suited to the meal—echoing the theme of abundance.Cited by Wine Zag.

Pairing Wine and Cheese, Made EasyMaker’s Table – October 2013 Pairing wine and cheese is tricky, but a bit of understanding—and one simple rule—will assure success.Cited by Serious Eats.

What I Learned Inside the CIAPalate Press – September 2013 I love to cook and love to learn, but I have no professional training. And so, when I got a cold call last summer from the CIA, inviting me to take on one of their Boot Camps, gratis, I pounced.Cited by Wine Business Monthly and Terroirist.

Monastrell—It’s From MurciaPalate Press – July 2013 A recent tasting tour in Murcia, Spain, proved that the region’s now producing high-quality Monastrell with great vitality and vibrancy—and at great prices.Cited by Wine Business Monthly, Wine Industry Insight, and Terroirist.

Kieran Robinson: A Syrah, An InterviewMaker's Table – July 2013 Kieran Robinson's 2009 Syrah is a vibrant, handsome wine, a European-style Syrah with California sentiments. Here, an interview with tasting notes. Cited by Wine Business Monthly and Wine Industry Insight.

Social Media for a Social BusinessBeverage Media Group – Print edition May 2013; online edition April 2013If any industry is tailored for social media, it’s wine.Cited by Wine Business Monthly, Wine Industry Insight, and Terroirist.

Learning About Writing About Wine: A Shifting TargetPalate Press – March 2013Wine writers love to talk about wine writing, but they seldom express what they’re doing to get better at writing about wine. Here’s what I’m doing now.Cited by Wine Business Monthly and Wine Industry Insight.

Palate ShepherdMaker’s Table – January 2013Two Shepherds Vineyards may be new, but winemaker William Allen is producing Rhône-style wines with finesse and gravity. Here, an interview with tasting notes.Cited by Wine Business Monthly and Terroirist.

Five Bottles: A New Old Way to Evaluate WinePalate Press – January 2013Wine evaluation often rests on a mere sip, but wine writing would become far more vital if writers tasted the way people do—as part of real life.Cited by Wine Industry Insight and Terroirist.

Five Reasons to Love Austrian Red WinesPalate Press – October 2012Austrian red wines are refreshing, food-friendly, and reasonably priced. Fans of cool-climate red wines should take note.Cited by Eric Asimov in the New York Times’s “What We’re Reading” and in Wine Business Monthly.

Old World, New World, New WordsMaker’s Table – October 2012The Old World/New World dialectic in wine writing is outdated, and writers need new ways to describe what they truly experience.Cited by Eric Asimov, Wine Business Monthly, and Wine Industry Insight.

Writing About WineMaker’s Table – September 2012Wine is visceral, sensual, sensorial. When you begin a story about wine, you must switch on your reader.Cited by Wine Industry Insight.

Best White Wines for FallPalate Press – September 2012You don’t have to abandon white wines when summer ends. Here are some whites that pair perfectly with autumn cuisine.Cited by Wine Business Monthly.

Zinfandel GelatoMaker’s Table – August 2012A spiced wine reduction—made from dregs or unremarkable bottles—offers a good flavor base for gelato.Cited by TheKitchn/Apartment Therapy.

Wine Labels, Wine IngredientsMaker’s Table – August 2012Should a wine label display the ingredients used in winemaking? A seasoned wine writer and marketer—and avid wine consumer—considers the issues.Cited by Eric Asimov in the New York Times’s “What We’re Reading,” Wine Business Monthly, and Organic Wine Journal.

Tasting Wine, Broadly SpeakingPalate Press – May 2012“Tasting” wine, so-called, isn’t only about taste, about the wine’s flavors. It’s also about its color, aromas, temperature, and texture across our palate. Tasting wine requires us to tune into a mix of signals entering our sensorium, then make sense of the mess.Cited by Andrew Sullivan/Daily Beast, The Browser, and Brain Pickings.

You Just Opened A What? Cooking Tips to Make Food More Wine-FriendlyPalate Press – April 2012A prior article covered pairing from the vantage point of trying to select the best wine to pair with any given food. But here the situation is reversed: you’ve got a wine picked out and now need some tricks to prepare the food so it’s more friendly with that wine.Finalist for “Best Blog Post” in the 2012 Wine Blog Awards.

Advice to Young ProfessionalsMegmaker.com – August 2011At a mid-career, I look back on my tenure in various organizations with a mixture of triumph and regret. Triumph because I’ve achieved reasonable success, and regret because I lost a lot of time learning how to function in a workplace. Here are a few tidbits of wisdom I wish someone had shared with me when I was first starting out.Excerpted in the book “Careeranista: The Woman’s Guide to Success After College,” by Chaz Pitts-Kyser.

Tea and WineAlimentum: The Literature of Food (print) – January 2011Poetry.

The Best of the Press, Volume 1 (E-Book)Palate Press: The Online Wine Magazine – December 2010A collection of the best stories from the first year of Palate Press, covering wine, wine and food pairing, winemaking, wine writing, and travel. Featured authors include Dan Berger, Rémy Charest, Mary Ewing-Mulligan, W. Blake Gray, Meg Houston Maker, W. R. Tish, and others from the US, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Croatia, and beyond.

A Trip to the Rhône, Part I & IIPalate Press – January 2010A whirlwind travelogue tour of the Northern Rhône.Cited by Howard G. Goldberg in the New York Times.

The Upside of DoonPalate Press – September 2009Randall Grahm, celebrated winemaker of Bonny Doon Vineyard, is betting the farm on one big, beautiful idea: terroir. In his new book, Been Doon So Long: A Randall Grahm Vinthology, he shares his witty, irreverent, and thoroughly refreshing take on the making of truly great wine. (Book Review)Feature story that launched the inaugural edition of Palate Press.

I’m available for freelance writing assignments, particularly those covering wine, food, travel, lifestyle, and communications. I also welcome inquiries for consulting, speaking, and teaching engagements. Please contact me at web@megmaker.com.